Recently we made a video about the house that inspired the Great Gatsby, Harbor Hill, but there
are some who claim it was a different mansion. Hi everyone ken here welcome to this house.
Today we are exploring the many mansions and that might have been the inspiration for the
great Gatsby. If you haven’t seen our previous video, that’s ok, you won’t need to in order to
understand this content, but if you would like to, the video will be linked at the end of this video.
Make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an exciting episode of this house.
F Scott Fitzgerald was born in 1896 to a middle class family,
but throughout his life he would end up brushing shoulders with the world’s elites. He was
accepted to Princeton University where he courted Ginevra King, the daughter of Chicago socialites.
When the relationship failed, he dropped out of college and enlisted in the US armed forces during
world war one. He was stationed in Alabama where he found love again with debutante and socialite
Zelda Sayre. Zelda became Fitzgerald’s muse, she was young, beautiful, and had an eccentric and
spirited personality, though she would later be diagnosed as schizophrenic. He proposed to her,
but her family would not allow their daughter to marry down.
With heart break, he put his feelings into words and wrote This Side of Paradise,
which closely mirrored his life. The book was an instant pop culture sensation
and Zelda received her parents blessing to marry Fitzgerald. Over the next few years, he wrote
several books and published magazine columns, with each story increasing his popularity. Everyone at
the top of society wanted to associate with this pop culture icon. He was invited to parties and
balls at some of the nations largest and most lavish mansions. Though it is most accepted that
a particular party at Harbor Hill inspired him to write the great Gatsby, there are several other
contenders that could still make sense within the confines of the fictional book’s description.
The Rose Cliff mansion in Newport was used in the 1974 Great Gatsby movie as the home of Jay Gatsby.
It was a hub of social life hosting entertainers such as Harry Houdini and Louis Armstrong to
entertain guests at parties. The house was beyond ornate with no expense being spared for artisan
work. The stair case flared out below a large rounded window with a carpet running centered
over the marble steps. Larger than life statues cast in bronze were set all about the house with
murals, frescoes and architectural elements leaving no blank spaces to be found on the walls.
The louis the sixteenth dining room was decorated with murals
framed by wall panels and twin chandeliers suspended on either side of the table.
Most convincing in the book’s description is the large water side terrace
offering panoramic views of the ocean.
Next on our list of possible inspirations is Beacon Towers in Sands Point New York.
It was the inspiration for the Great Gatsby Movie set of “East Egg” in 2013. Though the
house is grand, dominating the shore line, it was best known back in its day for being a think
tank to propel women’s rights in the united states and not for hosting elaborate parties.
It was built for Alva Smith, the ex wife of William K Vanderbilt who spearheaded the women’s
suffrage movement and organized the first women’s rights protest in front of the white house.
Her mansion was a reflection of her leadership, walking into the great hall,
you would be greeted by stone block walls separated by pointed gothic arches with
suits of armor between them. The sweeping solid stone staircase was accented by large stained
glass windows at its base and gothic windows on its landing allowing a mix of natural lights
and colorful reflections to bounce around the stone hall. The grounds of the castle boasted
a large terraced motor court outfront and beach access behind the castle. The setting
is perfect for the description of the home, but not for the events that took place in it.
In the 1974 Great Gatsby film, the Linden Place mansion in Bristol, Rhode island was
used as a backdrop in one of the scenes. Though the mansion is grand in it’s own right, neither
the setting for the mansion nor the mansion itself fit the description of F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel.
In huntington New York, there exists a house by the name of Oheka Castle which
many contend was the actual inspiration for the Great Gatsby and not Harbor Hill,
though both houses fit the description, a “factual imitation of some hotel de ville in normandy.”
Covering over 112,000 square feet, Oheka Castle is the largest private home to have ever been
built in New York, and the second largest to have ever been built in the united states.
It sits on perfectly manicured lawns with gardens which rival those of European royalty.
The interior of the 127 room house boasts murals set between pilasters with niches for urns as we
see in the dining room. The library, clad in wood paneling with oversized built in book shelves
exudes the richness associated with gilded age glamour. Even the bedrooms are decorated
with painted murals set between wood paneled walls. It is easy to see why Oheka Castle has
always been considered a top contender for the house that inspired F Scott Fitzgerald.
Maybe it wasn’t a single house that inspired F Scott Fitzgerald, perhaps it was a combination
of the things he experienced while attending parties with the worlds wealthiest socialites.
Let me know your thoughts down below in the comments section. Do you think
one of these houses was the absolute inspiration,
or do you think it was a combination of all of them? Maybe there was a house I didn’t mention,
make sure to let me know if I missed a lesser known house associated with the Great Gatsby.
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